


Found

by ka_tsu_ra



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Super Sentai Series
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Adoption, Babyfic, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 11:05:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6077019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ka_tsu_ra/pseuds/ka_tsu_ra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gai brought treasure back from the surface of a ravaged planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Found

This – how had Ahim put it? – this didn't bode well. They'd been on the planet a whole day and a night and come up to the ship for food and a weapon check while Gai did a sweep of the wreckage the stragglers from Zangyack had left behind.

They'd expected a request for a pickup, obviously. Even Gai could get sick of heroing, eventually. They hadn't, Don hadn't, expected the message to chill him.

When Gai's voice, which didn't return their followup shouts, crackled over Marvelous' Mobirate, it said simply, “I found something. You gotta get here.”

Gai took the lifeline up and Don waited. They all waited, though it was clear Marvelous and Ahim in particular did so against their wishes.

Gokai Silver stepped into the common room with a basket in one hand and a wad of dingy laundry in the crook of his arm, held to his chest. The tension rushed out of the room, displaced with puzzlement.

They'd found people to bury in the years since the Empire fractured, and they'd found people who missed evacuation shuttles. They'd found caches of weapons and secret bases. They'd found a dozen kinds of terrible things that would justify that terse a request for backup, most in the first couple years before the Empire stragglers devolved into well-dressed pirates with entitlement issues.

They never found anything like this.

“I'm sorry.” Gai spoke up first, behind his helmet. It took Don a second to realize he was talking to him, specifically. “I know we were trying to do it right, but-”

Silver's protection glittered away and Gai stepped forward. The bundle in his arms moved a little and Don's stomach fell through the floor. Gai was still speaking.

“But he was crying.” Gai had been crying, too, judging by the pinkness around his eyes.

The pirates crowded around. Don joined in last. His feet were heavy and his hands itched for something to fidget with. Beside him, Luka let out a long, hissing breath that spoke more anger than wonder.

Marvelous went to sit in his chair. “Where'd ya get it?”

Gai snuffed and set the basket down so he could uncover the little head of messy dark hair stirring in the blanket. Don tried not to look because, of course, they were doing this right. They were supposed to be 30 and 28 with fat pirate stashes each, there was supposed to be paperwork. This was years ahead of schedule.

He looked lighter and smaller than Don thought, knew, he should.

“Him,” Gai said.

“How d'you know?”

“Because he was dirty and I cleaned him off! Jeez!” Gai sniffed. “He was at- I guess it was a temple or something. It was knocked down so I guess we'll never know. His mama left a letter with him. That had to be right before the attack happened.”

“How terrible,” Ahim murmured.

Joe had fallen back to stand by Marvelous. “It happens. I'm sure she tried hard. She couldn't have known.”

“He still spent the night all alone,” Luka said. Don couldn't place her anger, but he recognized it.

The baby boy in Gai's arms swiveled his head to take them all in with his big dark eyes. Gai sniffed again and Don's throat hurt from constricting itself.

“If I didn't have the powers I did I couldn't have got to him,” Gai said. Now Don was fixed in place with two sets of large brown eyes. “Can you forgive me?”

Don nodded, only dimly aware of what he was forgiving. Acknowledging the implied agreement meant hoping and getting attached.

“Ain't got food for him, though,” Marvelous pointed out from his perch.

Luka pivoted with purpose and crossed to the galley door. “He's big enough that we got food, it's just not ready for him yet. You lot keep him entertained.”

Gai's shoulder's slumped and his eyes shone. “Thank you, Luka-san.” He sighed and his smile recovered. “Do, uh, do you know how to hold a baby?”

Ahim didn't respond, and Don looked at her. She looked back. “I do not believe he was speaking to me.”

Don swallowed. “I-”

“I know how!” Marvelous called, the grin very evident in his voice. It might have been the truth for all Don knew, but it sounded like a threat.

Don thrust his arms out. “I do! I'll hold him.”

“Thank you.” Gai had fresh tears in his eyes. This, it seemed, was the forgiveness he was looking for. They made the exchange gingerly while Ahim and the others watched.

He was lighter than Don's little cousins had been with arms and legs as long as his, or that's what his memory told him. He had a full head of hair so dark that his eyebrows stood out against his pale face. His eyes were on the lighter side of brown and his nose turned up a little.

He was beautiful, and Don was crying.

“Well?” The word floated out of Gai's mouth and circled the room while Don sunk into memories and this uncertain present moment.

He wasn't just asking Don, but Don nodded again. “Yes.”

“Take a picture, Gai,” Marvelous said.

“Eh?” Don turned his head a little and blinked two streams of tears down his face. Marvelous was grinning. Joe was smiling a small, reserved smile that contrasted with his folded arms.

The flash reflected off his wet face and stung his eyes. The baby in his arms gurgled and kicked, but he didn't cry.

Flash. Flash. Three clicks absent the flashes. More tears every time, because it felt real. The baby reached out for Don's wet face with tiny flexing hands.

“Gimme your Cellular and sit on the couch.” Marvelous circled around them.

Gai led him over with a simple touch to his elbow. His knees buckled so he could sit. Gai leaned in and the baby craned his face around to look at them both in turn.

Ahim stood on one side of Marvelous while he stooped down to frame the shot. She also took a second to direct him, which was ultimately in vain. He just waved her off and insisted he knew how to do it. Joe stood on the other side, still smiling. Once Marvelous was satisfied with the photos, Don found himself watching Joe's face.

And Joe started watching him back. Still smiling.

“So. What do we call him?” Joe asked, finally.

Now everyone agreed he could stay. Now it was real.

“Ah...” Don swallowed and curled his fingers in the blanket.

“There's worse places for a baby than a pirate ship,” Joe said. Marvelous nodded. “And we can't have a party til I know what to write on the cake. What do we call him?”

“Hikaru.” The word fell out of Gai's mouth like a heavy thing he'd been holding for someone he loved. He pulled the blanket back from the edge of the little boggling face and looked at Don. “I mean, is that a good name?”

“It's a perfect name.” Don's voice cracked and he held Hikaru a little closer. It was a fair trade besides. Gai had taken his name, after all.

“Sorry for the wait!” Luka appeared in the galley door again. Every head in the room turned to her. She had a tray on her hip, and on that a bowl. She looked livelier now, and not with anger. “You gotta be shown how to feed him?”

“No.” Don answered. “I know how.”

“Good.” Luka set the tray down and shooed Marvelous away when he came to inspect it. “It's rice and water and a little fat, so it won't be perfect in the long run. I'm gonna go scavenging for stuff for him. Nobody around to use it now anyways.”

Don sniffed. “Right. Thank you.”

\---

The party would come later. That night, Joe drifted away to make dinner. By the time Luka returned with her haul of baby things, the ship's living quarters smelled like roasting chicken. It was one of the few things Joe could make, baking aside.

“Tada!” Luka called, hefting a pair of shopping bags. “How'd he like his dinner?”

“He ate it all up,” Gai reported. Hikaru was dozing in his basket beside him on the couch. Don had positioned himself on his knees on the floor to watch them both.

“Then he upchucked about a quarter of it on Joe,” Marvelous said, still very amused by this.

“He was probably so hungry he didn't realize he was eating too much,” Luka said blithely. She set the bags on the coffee table and smiled into the basket. “Seems happy enough now, though.”

“He's quite the quiet child,” Ahim said, rising from her spot at the dining table to stand by Luka. “Is that unusual?”

“He's tired is all,” Marvelous said. “Let him sleep and digest his food and he'll start driving us all crazy in no time.”

Luka nodded. “And some babies are just quiet. Means they're thoughtful.”

Don swallowed and lightly touched Hikaru's soft, warm cheek. “I was quiet when I was a baby. My grandparents said I was a dream to take care of.”

“That sounds like you all right,” Gai said. “My mom always tells me I started talking really early.”

“Isn't that supposed to mean you're smart?” Joe asked from the galley door. Dinner was on.

\---

Hikaru couldn't – or didn't – speak a word yet, but before they all retired to bed that night he demonstrated the power of his lungs and his ability to fire off nonsense syllables in a very pointed way. He cried when he was dirty and babbled in a very animated way at Joe when his ponytail fell into view over the basket. He made the most noise when he couldn't see anyone around him, and Don couldn't blame him. No one could. Someone always hurried to abandon whatever they were doing to assure him that, no, he wasn't alone. Nobody'd left him.

Don practically cried when Marvelous literally dropped his food to his plate to lean over and put his grinning face in Hikaru's line of sight. He managed to make himself laugh with everyone else.

Luka said he was six or eight months old and Marvelous suggested they make that day his birthday anyway and celebrate it in a week. He was strong and coordinated enough to sit up on the floor and play with Navi while they rested after dinner. He didn't cry when he got tired, just made insistent noises and held his arms up to Gai, who was closest.

They went down to their room, the room that had been Don's alone once, earlier than usual. The basket and the sleeping baby, they left at the side of their bed. Gai fitted himself, as usual, up against Don's back to hold him. Don, who was all out of tears and too full of happiness to make room for any more, slept immediately.

 


End file.
